Shock piston circlip fail

[Crazy L]

Hi guys

Just wondering if anyone else has had the dubious experience of the circlip at the top of the shock shaft coming off?

This happened the other week. I was driving my TC02T around my local (Torch) as a few of us now have trucks. Please bear in mind also this is a brand new build and was the 1st time It had turned a wheel on the ground. It's also not the 1st kit I've built as I've been doing this since 1990.

Alas, I digress...

Front end of the truck was just boingy boingy like I had no oil in them. I did find the shocks leaking at this point and thought maybe all the oil had pissed out and the lack of damping was the cause of the boingyness.

So took the shock apart to change the o-rings which I were knackered, only to find the situation described at the top of the page. Piston at the top of the body, and a circlip enjoying a swim in fresh 30 odd weight oil. This was on both front shocks.

So, any others care to join the pinging piston circlip club? :eh?:

[john333]

Er, no never

[Chalkie]

Nope, can't say i've had a problem with them.

[goos]

This happens sometimes if you do not shim the pistons. A 0.2mm shim will make sure the piston rotates but does not wiggle. The shocks are much smoother anyways with a 0.2mm shim.

Also always make sure the e-clips rotate around the shaft, if they do not they will come loose.

[Buggy Driver]

E-clips are not equally shaped as the edge of one side is a little bit rounder and the other a bit sharper. If you put the sharper edge facing away from the piston it can withstand popping off much better. Shimming sounds good though and as also already stated the clips have to be put onto the shaft properly, completely locked down.

[Crazy L]

Cheers guys, I'm not surprised noone else has suffered it to be honest as it's not something I've experienced before. Shimming? ha, I'll be lucky. Circlips are proper snug round the piston. I had toyed with the idea of giving them a rub to maybe take 0.1-0.2 off the thinckness, but quite honestly, I couldn't be arsed.

I used some different e clips in the rebuild. which seem a bit more manly for the job. Down Torch in next week or two to test it out. Should be good.:woot::woot:

[Robbiejuk]

Cheers guys, I'm not surprised noone else has suffered it to be honest as it's not something I've experienced before. Shimming? ha, I'll be lucky. Circlips are proper snug round the piston. I had toyed with the idea of giving them a rub to maybe take 0.1-0.2 off the thinckness, but quite honestly, I couldn't be arsed.

I used some different e clips in the rebuild. which seem a bit more manly for the job. Down Torch in next week or two to test it out. Should be good.:woot::woot:


Circlips are quite easy to misshape when you put them on take them off. In fact if I ever take one off I usually replace it with a brand new one just to be sure. I reckon you just might have accidently bent it when putting it on and thats why it came off. Never had any pistons that a re a tight fit under the circlips though, usually a little gap on them.